Bar Lunch 2014

Dear Alumni,

I am writing to ask for your help in supporting the NYLS Class of 2014 to pass the New York State Bar Exam in July.

On May 21, the Class of 2014 began their journey from law students to lawyers at the Law School’s 122nd Commencement Exercises at Carnegie Hall. We know you join all of us in celebrating their accomplishments and wishing them well.

Last year we started a new tradition—serving free boxed lunches and offering private space exclusively to NYLS’s recent graduates taking the New York State Bar Exam at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Deborah Archer and I, along with other administrators, distributed boxed lunches and offered words of encouragement to members of the Class of 2013 on both days of the Bar Exam.

The Bar Exam Lunch Program was a resounding success. Coupled with other extraordinary efforts to prepare our students, NYLS saw the highest jump of any New York State law school on our bar pass rate, nearly 14 points between 2012 and 2013 – from 69.8 percent to 83.4 percent.

Here’s what two members of the Class of 2013 said about the program:

“Not having to worry about where to get lunch was great, but what was really amazing was being greeted by the Deans and administration with words of encouragement, a hug or a smile in those low moments. It made me feel so cared for, and gave me the strength to keep my head up and power through. No other law school offered its students more support and more action-oriented programming before and during the bar exam.”

Petal Hwang ’13

“I was getting more support and encouragement from the School than from any other part of my life. The School understood and acknowledged what we were going through.”

Eberle Schultz ’13

As a show of support for our newest graduates, the New York Law School Alumni Association is co-sponsoring this effort and has provided a gift of $3,000 as a challenge with an invite to the alumni community-at-large to contribute individually toward the Bar Exam Lunch Program.

Kindlyshow your support for our newest alumni, as an individual co-sponsor of the Bar Exam Lunch Program, by providing the cost of one, two, or more lunches. (See link for details.)

Each boxed lunch will contain a sandwich or wrap, snacks, fruit, water, coffee or tea, and ear plugs to help keep the exam-takers energized and focused.